


Fiction Shelved as Nonfiction

by December21st



Category: Castle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-19
Updated: 2011-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-27 12:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/296069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/December21st/pseuds/December21st
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Very good storytellers can convince an audience that their stories are true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fiction Shelved as Nonfiction

**Author's Note:**

> Response to the "Favorite Character" prompt for the "Squared" challenge at LiveJournal's Castleland.

When he was seven years old, Richard Rodgers (not yet Castle) convinced his ten closest friends that there was pirate treasure hidden somewhere on the grounds of the century-old Future Leaders of New York Academy. For years afterward, the blueprints of the building and grounds were poured over by pint-sized treasure-seekers while the groundskeepers spent inordinate amounts of time filling in holes dug in random locations instead of lounging in the furnace room, watching sporting events. It was the third school that young Richard was kicked out of.

When he was sixteen years old, Richard Rodgers (still not Castle, but getting closer) convinced the entire Junior class that Mr. Edgeware, retiring at the end of the school year, had previously murdered a sophomore who refused to study instead of just failing her because of the negative effect it would have on his record. It was the only time in his forty-three year teaching career that Mr. Edgeware awarded an "A" to each and every student in all of his classes.

The same year, finances for the Rodgers family were tight as his mother was between both husbands and speaking roles, but Richard managed to pay his tuition using entirely money he earned from tutoring English. Mr. Edgeware, a quiet little man who would never hurt a fly, devoted to the joys of English and his students, retired believing that he had finally gotten it right.

When he was twenty-eight years old, Richard Castle (actually Castle now) convinced 702 people that a man named Derrick Storm saved the lives of every man, woman, and child living in Seattle, Washington while wearing a daffodil-yellow golf shirt thanks to his charm with the ladies, his accuracy with a crossbow, and a four-hour class he took on disarming bombs. Now, just to be clear, nearly eight million people read "Driving Storm", but of those, most were aware it was a work of fiction. But 702 souls, for one reason or the other, were convinced that every word of that particular story was based in fact.

When he was thirty-seven years old, Richard Castle convinced himself, an NYPD Detective named Kate Beckett, and pretty much nobody else that the only reason he wanted to follow Detective Beckett around was for inspiration for his stories.


End file.
